Kirubi among leaders turning Africa into the bright continent - Page 4 of 5 - Capital Business
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Take Chris Kirubi. Western readers may not have heard of him, but in East Africa, and in particular Kenya, he is seen as Africa’s answer to Sir Richard Branson/FILE

Kenya

Kirubi among leaders turning Africa into the bright continent

“Look, I am 45, so I have observed nine or 10 oil cycles. With every cyclical product, the temptation is always to extrapolate at any point of time: ‘Oh my God, this is the worse cycle I have ever covered. Oh my God, this is a whole new world and the cycle will never come back again.’ But this is extreme, and I have learnt not to do that.”
Nevertheless, compared with other big oil-producing countries, Nigeria has undoubtedly missed out on decades of potential sovereign wealth rainy-day money from its oil riches, I say.

Again comes the rebuff: “You say we’re coming late to this, but late relative to who? Kuwait started in 1956, Abu Dhabi didn’t start until the mid-70s – was that late or was that early? Norway didn’t start until the mid-90s.”

It’s harder for him to dispute that Nigerian politics is in a mess. The Valentine’s Day election has had to be postponed until later this month, Boko Haram are causing havoc and misery in the north of the country.

I wonder whether there is any pressure to spend the sovereign wealth fund money on stabilising the country.

Absolutely not, comes the reply: “We have been allowed, as a board, to have no political interference. The mandate is simple – keep this fund safe and have it yielding a return.”

Despite it being so high on the country’s – and Africa’s – economic and political agenda, he refuses to discuss the election. However, he does offer this advice to potential investors in his country: “Warren Buffett said this: ‘Be greedy when everybody else is fearful and fearful when everybody else is greedy.’ If I was to extrapolate that quote, I would say this is a buying opportunity in Nigeria today.”

Defying expectations: An uber for africa

Africa Internet Group is a business that almost defies belief to Western eyes. It runs copycat models of successful internet businesses like Uber for taxis, AO for household goods and Rightmove for estate agents – in what would, from the outside, seem like some of the most challenging countries in the world.

So far it has opened in 25 countries in Africa with the best internet access. These range from Morocco and South Africa to Cameroon and Ivory Coast.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Advertisement

More on Capital Business